Archetypes: Television: Review: ‘iZombie’ (2015)

You are what you eat plays out big time in CW’s undead-medical procedural “iZombie,” adapted from a comic book series by the creatives that brought you “Veronica Mars.” “iZombie” features another plucky female, the well named Olivia “Liv” Moore (Rose McIver), a medical resident whose life literally transforms one night during some zombie mayhem at a boat party gone bad.

When previously brunette Liv unzips herself out of a body bag on shore, she’s now a pasty-complexioned bleach blonde – as in almost-all-the-life’s-been-sucked-out-of-her absence of color. She’s also got a nasty scratch mark on her arm and, much worse, a craving for human brains. Abiding by the Hippocratic Oath’s do no harm, Liv dumps her boyfriend (Robert Buckley), lest her new culinary or lifestyle habits harm him.

Adopting a Goth persona, Liv finds new employment in a morgue where corpses mean that the eating is good, thanks to the sympathy and extraordinary optimism of her new medical supervisor Ravi Chakrabarti (Rahul Kohli), who’s impressed when her ingestion of brain matter triggers flashes of insight about the newly deceased. Completing this triumvirate is initially suspicious detective Clive Babinaux (Malcolm Goodwin). However, when, in the pilot, Liv suddenly starts conducting a conversation in rapid-fire Romanian, Clive’s inclined to believe that the hybridized undead Liv is the real deal. A jubilant Ravi, buoyed by the proceedings, exclaims, “Fresh brains for later!” Life is good (enough).

The show’s snappy dialog is eclipsed, however, by the series’ clever working of the predominant archetype of psychic. Psychics do their work of procuring knowledge or information by easily accessing the transcendent, a realm with which they effortlessly merge. Liv, through her ability to take on the life experiences of the dead – and wanting to do good in the world, given her new lot in life – epitomizes Neptune’s unifying and compassionate energy. The one link out of place is Liv’s inability to get decent shut eye. Neptune, which rules sleep and Liv’s trance-like flash insights, may also be acting as the benevolent irritant, keeping her this side of alive.

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